First Green Hairstreaks of Rodborough Common

[SolomonGilbert]

First time meeting the lovely Matthew Oates, who, like us, was on the look out for some early Green Hairstreaks at Rodborough common today. We had one brief but clear sighting of a Green Hairstreak in flight, then another glimpse of two small Hairstreak-sized butterflies fighting in the air. Finally, we got a good look at this beautiful butterfly posing in the sun, returning to the same oak for us to gaze at. They'll be out in masses on the common before long, but this was a very early sighting even by our hopeful standards! We speculate that the area around bear hill, home to a variety of rare species and a bit of a sun trap, is warmer than the rest of the common and thus encouraging the early hatch. We didn't see any Hairstreaks in our main 'streak' area of scrub - a small copse full of gorse, hawthorn, brambles and birch trees, which is a bit more exposed to the wind.

[David M]

Amazing! Green Hairstreaks in March. They'll regret it next week when temperatures are back to 9c!!

[Chris L]

Wow ! That is an incredibly early sighting. I spent a few moments today wandering about thinking about future Green Hairstreak spotting days out, my thinking being that it would be at least a month before I did that.

[SolomonGilbert]

Mr Oates informed us that the previous record for sighting was 30th March. I have been feeling disquieted by the mildness of this winter, and to have my suspicions confirmed by such early green companionship is making me all too worried about the year to come.

Regardless, they made lovely company for our Saturday and I got some brilliant footage.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that they don't fall prey to a cold snap.

[Chris L]

I have been feeling disquieted by the mildness of this winter, and to have my suspicions confirmed by such early green companionship is making me all too worried about the year to come.

Yes, I think we could do with a bit of rain. A lot of my garden is dust. I believe that the week ahead offers a small amount of rain but, by and large, the next fortnight is quite dry.

[Stevie Blunder]

I was there on Thursday in beautiful weather and the only butterfly I saw that day was a single Peacock. Well done for spotting the Green Hairstreak. I looked for one, but seems I was a day too early!